Panleukopenia, or feline distemper: causes, symptoms, forms of the disease and prevention of infection

Panleukopenia in cats is a fairly common disease. This disease is widely known as distemper. Young animals under the age of 1 year are especially susceptible to it.

Panleukopenia is considered a highly contagious disease. It mainly affects the digestive system, but can also cause complications in other organs.

Viral infections in cats and their dangers

First, you need to briefly describe viral infections in cats and their danger:

• Firstly, panleukopenia itself.
• IRT, i.e. infectious rhinotracheitis.
• Calcivirosis.
• Viral immunodeficiencies.
• Infectious peritonitis (EP).

The danger of all these “sores” is that:

• Many occur in a lightning-fast or hyper-acute form, when the clock counts. Fatalities are common.
• They dramatically weaken the animal’s immunity; viral infections are often accompanied by secondary bacterial diseases.
• And most importantly, there are no specific drugs against viruses, there is only supportive therapy.

Good to know

• Trichopolum instructions for veterinary medicine
• Instructions for the use of the antibiotic Baytril in animals
• Instructions for use of metronide
• Instructions for ceftriaxone preparations for animals
• Use of Metrogyl in veterinary medicine
• Instructions for doxycycline in animals
• Metronidazole (Metronidazole) for animals (instructions for use in veterinary medicine, doses, indications and contraindications)
• Atovaquone (ATOVAQUONE)
• Azithromycin, instructions for animal therapy

What is panleukopenia and its causative agent, what characterizes the disease

Panleukopenia and its causative agent are a very dangerous, highly contagious (in other words, instantly transmitted) pathology of cats. A disease of viral etiology. The second name is feline distemper. It is extremely difficult, the mortality rate reaches 90%. The younger or older the cat, the lower the chances of recovery.

The disease is accompanied by severe fever, responses from the digestive system (i.e. vomiting and profuse diarrhea), as well as dehydration. The latter develops very quickly and, as a rule, is the main cause of death in kittens and old animals.

Good to know! Feline distemper is widespread throughout the world (with the exception of Antarctica). The disease affects all members of the cat family (both domestic and wild). But not only that: biologists have recorded cases of illness in minks, raccoons and hyenas.

The causative agent is a DNA virus from the Parvoviridae family, belonging to the genus Parvovirus. It is very small even compared to other viruses (up to 20 nm). But he has another, much more unpleasant, feature. We are talking about stability in the external environment, which is not typical for other microorganisms of this type:

• The pathogen can withstand heating up to 60° for about an hour (or even more).
• It is completely unaffected by stomach enzymes, which are usually fatal to other viruses.
• In the external environment, the causative agent of panleukopenia can persist for a year. It is due to this “conservation” that it is distributed throughout the world.

Myth No. 1. A cat cannot get infected from a dog

For a long time, there was a belief that cat viruses are not dangerous for dogs and vice versa. However, research in recent years shows the opposite.

Canine parvovirus type 2 (strains 2a, 2b, 2c), which causes parvovirus enteritis in dogs, can infect cats and cause a disease similar to panleukopenia.

Thus, most cases of panleukopenia in some regions of Asia are caused by strains of canine parvovirus type 2.

Feline panleukopenia virus is not dangerous to humans or dogs, but canine parvovirus can infect cats

However, feline panleukopenia virus can infect and cause panleukopenia in all felines and some related species (such as raccoons and minks), but does not affect dogs.

Forms of panleukopenia

There are four forms of panleukopenia:

• Super acute. It is observed relatively rarely, but this type is the most dangerous. The mortality rate in some conditions reaches 95%, almost all kittens die, symptoms develop within a couple of hours. It is not always possible to provide at least some help to the animal.
• Spicy. The most common and widespread type of disease. The disease develops over a couple of days and is characterized by fever and gastrointestinal responses. The form is also quite lethal, with mortality reaching (on average) 70%.
• Subacute form. One of the most poorly studied. Externally, the condition of a sick animal changes little (it becomes only slightly more depressed), and in some cases self-recovery is possible. However, the absence of pronounced symptoms does not mean anything: in the subacute form, pets often die suddenly and for no apparent reason.
• Hidden panleukopenia. Many veterinarians believe that this is not even an independent type of disease, but one of the forms of carriage. The virus can remain in the body of recovered animals for a long time. During this period, the pet is somewhat depressed, sleeps and drinks a lot. All this time, the cat continues to remain infectious to its relatives.

Stages of the disease

The following stages of the disease are distinguished:

• Incubation period. At this time, the virus has already entered the body, but external manifestations of the disease are not yet observed.
• Open manifestation of the disease (acute stage).
• Recovery or death.

Chronic panleukopenia

Until recently, there was an opinion among veterinarians that chronic panleukopenia does not exist. This theory was debunked several years ago when studies of the blood of domestic and stray cats revealed that approximately 70% of animals had not only antibodies in their blood, but also some amount of Parvovirus.

The disease is completely asymptomatic; occasionally the cat has periods of weakness and sudden and causeless diarrhea. But if the pet’s immunity weakens for some reason, the virus can multiply very quickly, which can result in sudden death.

In some cases of chronic panleukopenia in a sick cat, the mesenteric (mesenteric) lymph nodes become sharply enlarged. They compress the intestines so much that the pet begins to suffer from constant constipation.

Atypical panleukopenia

Atypical panleukopenia is characterized by vague and “sluggish” symptoms, as well as a long course. In this case, the acute stage can last for 10 days or more. The pet's condition is slowly but steadily deteriorating.

In approximately 55% of cases, the case ends in death, but with timely treatment, the pet usually survives. True, after atypical panleukopenia, the animal very often remains a lifelong carrier, i.e. the pathogen remains in his body.

The third sign is foul diarrhea.

A specific sign of damage to a pet’s body by a dangerous viral infection is the appearance of diarrhea. Diarrhea has a foul odor. The reason for this is damage to the tissue mucous membranes of the intestines by viral agents. In addition to diarrhea, an animal with panleukopenia develops severe pain in the abdominal area; the cat takes an unnatural position, tries to hide in a dark place, or lie on its stomach.

Feces are unformed, translucent, yellowish. Diarrhea is not only foul-smelling, but may also contain blood and fibrin flakes. Diarrhea with panleukopenia is a direct consequence of a hemorrhagic or catarrhal inflammatory process that has developed in the intestinal walls. The feline distemper virus provokes damage to the villi of the small intestine. From there, the infectious agents accumulated in the intestinal area spread through the lymphatic and circulatory system, reaching all the way to the bone marrow. The course of the pathological process largely depends on the age characteristics of the pet, its general health and the activity of the virus that has entered the body.

The panleukopenia virus is very dangerous for small kittens, causing their death in almost 90% of all cases of infection. If an adult cat is infected, the mortality rate can range from 25 to 75%, depending on the state of the animal's immune system. It is noteworthy that the panleukopenia virus is oncotropic. This means that there is a high risk of developing malignant tumors in a cat that has had feline distemper. During its life activity, the infectious agent provokes a blocking of the activation of specific protein components - type 1 interferons. They, in turn, are needed to fight cancer cells.

Ways of transmission of “feline plague”

Modern veterinary virologists identify the following routes of disease transmission:

• At the initial stage, the virus is actively transmitted by airborne droplets, sneezing and coughing. Thus, when pets are kept crowded (especially in shelter conditions), the disease spreads instantly, 100% coverage of the entire population is possible).
• In addition, the fecal-oral route of transmission is characteristic of panleukopenia.

In “field conditions” infection most often occurs as follows:

• In direct contact with a sick animal. In sick cats, a large amount of exudate saturated with viruses leaks from the nose and eyes.
• Any contact with cats that have had panleukopenia within the last year is very dangerous.
• If the cat is taken to exhibitions and other public events, you should never use used bowls, grooming items, beds, etc.
• Very often, a cat becomes infected simply by being in a room where a sick animal was previously located. Considering that the virus is able to remain viable in the external environment for a year, then in cases where the first pet dies from panleukopenia, a new kitten should be adopted at least a year later.
• In addition, the virus is easily transmitted on clothes, shoes, and street dirt.

Is the disease dangerous for humans and other animals?

Feline distemper is absolutely safe for humans, so a cat can be safely treated without fear of becoming infected. However, the virus is dangerous for other animals. Therefore, in addition to vaccination, it is necessary to disinfect the premises and observe quarantine.

As a disinfectant, you can use regular chlorine bleach in an aqueous solution (ratio 1:32).

In addition, to get rid of the virus, you will have to part with all the things of the sick animal: bedding, toys, drinking and eating utensils, litter trays - and replace them with new ones.

A cat that has recovered from panleukopenia will become immune to the disease, but other pets can still become infected, since it is impossible to get rid of the virus 100%. Therefore, a new pet cannot be acquired earlier than a year later; it must be vaccinated in advance or make sure that it has immunity.

Symptoms and signs of panleukopenia in cats: how the disease manifests itself

Symptoms and signs of panleukopenia in cats depend on its clinical form, and the forms of manifestation of the disease change.

A typical sign of acute panleukopenia is a sharp increase in temperature and the onset of fever. Note that an increase in general body temperature is observed twice: the first time it rises immediately and lasts for a day. Another day later, a second increase is observed, and this time the elevated temperature lasts for another 2 days. Unfortunately, many sick pets die around this time.

The pet's general condition worsens: the cat gradually loses weight and develops dehydration. The latter occurs due to frequent bloody diarrhea (while fibrin clots are often found in the stool) and equally frequent vomiting. There is abundant discharge from the nasal passages and conjunctival cavity.

But the main thing is what happens to the animal’s blood. That's why the disease is called panleukopenia. The number of all leukocytes decreases sharply, with agranulocytes being the first to be affected. Around day 5, neutropenia and lymphopenia are added. The latter means that the number of neutrophils and lymphocytes in the blood decreases.

Important! If the cat is alive by the 4th day of illness, then it usually recovers. Kittens under the age of one year with an acute course of the disease die in the first two days.

The course of subacute, latent and atypical panleukopenia is very similar, and therefore it makes no sense to describe them separately.

In all these cases, the following symptoms develop:

• “Protracted” variants of the pathology are characterized by constant, prolonged diarrhea, while many mucous impurities appear in the stool. Very often the animal dies from chronic dehydration and severe autointoxication.
• Characteristic (in addition to a decrease in the number of leukocytes) is anemia, which can have a very bad effect on the pet’s health in the future.
• In many cases, cachexia develops (i.e., extreme exhaustion), and the animal may look like a “revived skeleton.”

Today, many veterinarians are inclined to believe (taking into account the detection of antibodies in the blood of examined cats) that in approximately 17-25% of animals the disease occurs in latent forms, asymptomatic, after which they develop a fairly stable immunity. This is the most optimal scenario for both the pet and its owner.

What is feline distemper

Cats get distemper, but in them it is called panleukopenia.
Caused by the parovirus Virus panleukopenia feline, it primarily affects the cells of the intestines and other internal organs. Panleukopenia, in addition to high mortality, can cause a number of serious complications that impair the functions of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, gastrointestinal tract, and bone marrow, which causes irreparable harm to the health of cats. The level of leukocytes in the blood decreases greatly, dehydration and intoxication of the body occurs. Sometimes the course of distemper in cats is aggravated by concomitant diseases that complicate the animal’s serious condition. For example, kidney failure and diabetes. The infection often affects young cats or older pets with weakened immune systems.

Feline distemper is not transmitted to humans. The panleukopenia virus cannot penetrate human cells under any circumstances. That's why people don't get feline distemper.

The disease does not have a clear distribution area; it is found everywhere. Distemper in cats most often appears in the spring, and most diseases occur in summer and autumn.

The plague virus is resistant to many environmental factors and lives in the body for up to a year. This greatly complicates the process of treating the pet and carrying out preventive measures.

Incubation period: duration and features

As a rule, the incubation period (more precisely, its duration) depends on a combination of several factors:

• From the method of infection. Thus, after direct contact with a sick animal, the incubation period rarely takes more than six days. With the fecal-oral route of infection, the first symptoms appear within seven or eight days.
• The duration of incubation largely depends on the age of the pet. So, kittens “lie down” for a couple of days at most, but young and healthy cats can show signs of the disease after 10 days, or their pathology immediately turns into a subclinical, hidden form. Old pets also get sick very quickly and their illness is very severe.
• Of course, a lot depends on the initial state of the cat’s immunity. The healthier she is, the greater the chance of a mild form of the disease. Accordingly, an exhausted and weakened animal may well become ill within 10-15 hours from the moment of contact with a sick relative, and it will be extremely seriously ill.

Finally, the average incubation period is 6 to 10 days.

How to prevent your kitten from getting sick.

Most owners, suspecting something wrong, act on the principle: “Now I’ll give the cat a miracle pill and it will recover.” They treat the animal like themselves - with folk remedies. What is happening at this moment? The owner is wasting precious time, which could be spent on diagnostics and making a diagnosis. In addition, these remedies are useless because they are a preventive measure. To kill the virus, use only the right medications prescribed by a doctor.

Many people like to prescribe medications themselves. They do the same as with themselves. They go to the pharmacy and buy something. An animal is different from a person; it cannot say what and how it hurts. They have their own medications for treatment. The owners are not specialists and can only harm, but not cure. Throwing water at an animal is also dangerous. If a cat doesn’t want to drink, it means the body requires it.

Medicines purchased independently from a pharmacy can provoke poisoning and it will be more difficult for the doctor to make a diagnosis. Additional stress on the cat's body can cause rapid death. If you decide to take her to a veterinary center, then place a soft bedding in the carrier, but it would be better not to carry a sick animal, but to call a doctor at home.

Treatment is more effective when taken together. The virus is capable of mutation, making the selection of therapy even more difficult. For each individual case, appropriate drugs are selected. It all depends on the condition of the animal, the degree of infection, etc. The prescribed medications support the cat’s exhausted body and slow down the reproduction of viruses.

Treatment is prescribed strictly individually. The owner must follow all doctor's recommendations. It is necessary to look after and properly care for the animal and monitor its well-being. If deterioration occurs, you should immediately call the veterinarian to your home again, as additional therapy may be required.

Tests and diagnostic methods: how pathology is detected

If cases of panleukopenia are frequent in a particular area, an experienced veterinarian will make a diagnosis “by eye” without any problems. But this does not negate the need to conduct a comprehensive examination of a sick cat.

The clinic immediately does a general blood test: in most cases this is quite sufficient. Hematocrit with panleukopenia is impaired in the direction of a sharp decrease in the number of leukocytes. There are especially few neutrophils, and an increased ESR is often observed. If the level of leukocytes in the blood is less than 2-109, then the prognosis, unfortunately, is unfavorable. But still, a final diagnosis cannot be made without specialized tests:

• The most accurate PCR reaction is (but the technique is not cheap).
• Most often, ELISA is performed. In this case, they look for specific antibodies in the blood.

Note that in some regions, ELISA can show almost 100% positive results, and therefore you do not need to completely trust this analysis. In recent years, a situation has become very common when the blood of completely healthy cats contains antibodies to the causative agent of panleukopenia.

Diagnostics

In fact, to make an accurate diagnosis it will take quite a long time, which is often not available, since therapy must be started immediately for a favorable prognosis. But tests still need to be taken, so a specialist will be able to rule out diseases with similar symptoms, namely:

• banal poisoning;
• leukemia;
• immunodeficiency.

You definitely need to tell everything about the cat’s behavior in recent days and its well-being; the veterinarian will also be able to analyze all this to make a diagnosis. You will have to take a blood, urine, and stool test. This will determine the presence of inflammation in the cat’s tissues.

© shutterstock

Features of the course of the disease in kittens, adults and pregnant cats

We have already indirectly described the features of the course of the disease in kittens, adults and pregnant cats, but still this issue needs to be considered in more detail:

• So, for kittens, everything is simpler and worse. They get sick very quickly, the incubation period is short (rarely more than two days), and within two days after the onset of symptoms, from 70% to 97% of babies die. The disease in their case is accompanied by profuse diarrhea, dehydration, and intermittent fever. About two or three hours before death, the pet becomes noticeably cold. It is not uncommon for kittens to have a hyperacute form of panleukopenia, when the animal dies for no apparent reason.
• In adult cats, the disease is milder, but is also characterized by periodic diarrhea, fever, and a noticeable decrease in appetite. In approximately 25% of cases, the disease is asymptomatic, but the animal in this case remains a carrier and spreads the virus in the external environment.
• In pregnant pets, panleukopenia is often characterized by abortion. The condition of the mother herself is moderately severe; in most cases, the “shed” cat survives, which cannot be said about the kittens... Even if there was no abortion, the offspring in more than 80% of cases is born dead (or the cat dies from putrefactive maceration of the fetus), or Kittens have such severe health problems from birth that they do not live long.

Clinical treatment of panleukopenia in cats: techniques and medications

Clinical treatment of panleukopenia in cats is the most effective; it is difficult to help an animal on its own. Here is an approximate, average treatment regimen (medicines are administered once a day):

• A forward is assigned. 0.5 ml at a time, subcutaneously.
• Vitamin B6 is required - also 0.5 ml. It is administered intravenously.
• It is equally necessary to administer vitamin B12, also 0.5 ml intravenously.
• Riboxin is also injected intravenously at 0.5 ml.
• Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is administered per milliliter.
• 0.2 ml of Sinulox is injected subcutaneously.
• Antibiotics from the cephalosporin group - as prescribed by a veterinarian.
• Metrogyl 2 ml intravenously
• sodium chloride 80 ml intravenously (dropper)
• glucose 5% 20 ml subcutaneously

Filgrastim or similar agents are required. They accelerate the production and release into the blood of full-fledged adult neutrophils and other leukocytes.

Establishing diagnosis

If your cat shows signs of panleukopenia, you should immediately measure its temperature. Normally, this indicator is in the range of 38–39 °C. If it is elevated, you need to immediately take the cat to the veterinarian. The doctor will conduct an examination and prescribe tests to confirm or refute the diagnosis:

1. Clinical blood test. With panleukopenia, the number of leukocytes and red blood cells is always reduced in the cat’s blood.
2. Nasal swab.
3. Stool analysis.

To successfully treat feline panleukopenia, it is very important to differentiate it from other diseases that have similar symptoms. It is necessary to exclude pancreatitis, feline leukemia, poisoning, damage to the gastrointestinal tract by foreign bodies, acute toxoplasmosis and feline immunodeficiency virus.

Consequences and pathological changes in the body

To better understand the danger of panleukopenia, you need to know its consequences and pathological changes in the body. Let's start with lifetime consequences:

• Long-term disorders of hematopoiesis (the process of blood production).
• Neurological disorders are possible.
• Miscarriages, pyometra or severe endometritis, maceration or mummification of fetuses, infertility (and in cats too).
• Growth and developmental disorders are often diagnosed in young animals after panleukopenia. In particular, the pet may remain miniature for the rest of its life.
• If the inflamed mesenteric lymph nodes have been compressing the intestines for a long time, the cat may well suffer from constipation for the rest of its life.

Symptoms

• Vomit
• Diarrhea/bloody diarrhea
• Dehydration
• Weight loss
• Heat
• Anemia (due to low red blood cell count)
• Ungroomed coat
• Depression
• Complete loss of interest in food
• The cat is hiding
• Neurological symptoms (eg, incoordination)

Prevention and vaccination of cats: how to prevent disease

Thus, only high-quality prevention and vaccination of cats is often the key to the health and life of pets. Therefore, there is no need to save on this. Let's start with prevention:

• Cats should be protected from contact with sick animals.
• If cases of panleukopenia are frequent in a particular area, then before entering the house it would not hurt to place a mat, which must be periodically moistened with disinfectant solutions.
• If a new kitten is taken into the house, it must be kept in a room (for example, in a clinic) for two weeks.
• You can only go to official, certified exhibitions, where all animals have certified veterinary passports. But even in this case, it is strictly forbidden to use used care items.

Unfortunately, the measures described above are not a 100% guarantee of protection, and therefore only timely vaccination with one of the vaccines described below can save a cat:

• Nobivak Triket.
• SQUARE.
• BIOFEL PCH, BIOFEL PCHR.
• "MULTIFEL-4"
• Fel-O-Vax LVK IV and others.

All of the above vaccines are administered once a year; notes about this must be included in the pet’s veterinary passport.

Feeding and caring for a sick cat

Feeding and caring for a sick cat play an important role. First you need to focus on feeding:

• Firstly, in severe cases, pets should not be fed by mouth! More precisely, they do not feed him on the first day. Intravenous infusion of nutrient solutions (at least the same 5% glucose) is indicated.
• Secondly, in the first two weeks after the cat’s condition has stabilized, it is necessary to feed it with veterinary holistic formulas created specifically for feeding weakened and sick animals.
• Thirdly, to normalize digestion, probiotics (Procolin, for example) are necessarily used.

If the owner does not want to use ready-made food, here is an example of a “natural” diet:

• For the first three days (at least), the pet “eats” exclusively intravenously. At this time, his digestive system is not able to absorb “normal” food.
• For the next three days, the pet is fed rich broths made from boiled chicken. If the animal feels acceptable, baby meat purees are added for nutritional reasons. Also add a little boiled rice to the diet at this time.

• By the end of the first week and in cases where the cat no longer diarrhea, does not vomit, and the pet’s condition has stabilized, it is allowed to include boiled chicken, rabbit, turkey, as well as boiled lean fish in the diet.
• After another two days, you can gradually transfer the animal to a standard diet.

Caring for a sick pet is simple: the animal is given complete rest, it is not disturbed, and the room where it is kept is maintained at normal temperature and air humidity.